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OK, Don, pay attention. There is this currency called the Euro which is used by most of the members of the European Union (Britain, thank God, being one of the exceptions). Euro countries use the same money, so, for example, you can earn them in France and spend them in Germany. Problem is that Greece has been living high off the hog spending the wealth created in other countries (like Germany, France, the UK) and given to them as subsidies because they don’t actually make anything in Greece except olive oil. Now their economy is bankrupt, the locals are revolting because of the cuts in benefits (paid for by other Europeans) and the rest of the EU is tasked with bailing them out.

Next comes Portugal, Spain, and every other country that is happy to spend other peoples’ money but can’t be bothered to create any wealth themselves. Any similarity between this and any other global economy is purely coincidental…

Goldman Sachs helped Greece hide its lousy debt so that it could qualify for entry into the European Union. Now that the truth is known, some very unhappy European countries are having to hold up the Greek Parthanon in Athens. It is obvious that Greece can’t even help do that!

re I admit I was mildly puzzled by Punk’s comment so I looked up the legend and almost immediately guessed efharisto poli (thanks for what I picked up in Crete. Er, that’s efharisto for what I picked up in Crete). I like this legend. ;-)

Ah yes, the grasshoppers sang while the hardworking ants toiled all summer. Trouble is, this grasshopper moved to the UK and toiled, too. So I look weary and as angry as those other folks, pillars of the community, and lost my handsome looks. :( Ai, que disgraça.

Bob Hasty has it spot on but I detect a little anti-EUness in jgcp1’s comment, tch. ;-)

I don’t mind the EU - just the bureaucracy, corruption, waste and over-regulation.

The original idea of a free trade association in which everyone’s economic interdependence on the others would eliminate the likelihood of a third European war was good (if rather naive). Instead, we have a few productive economies propping up a (growing) mass of non-productive ones, and into the bargain, a diminution of the diversity that made Europe such a wonderful place to live.

Corruption in Greece is rife and riddled with jobs-for-life made-up government departments and people collecting subsidies for doing absolutely nothing, but listen to the howls of protest when anyone tries to pull their snouts out of the trough. Just wait until some of the Eastern European contries come into the Euro-zone! Then we’ll really see how it’s done!

Sorry jgcp1, for some reason I thought you were from the UK.
But essentially I don’t disagree with your words on the EU, perhaps just the degree. As for loss of diversity, well, my wife & child are trying to make up for it. Between us we have 4 nationalities. Wait, are we causing this loss through intermarriage? :-o
I’m rather hoping the EU member states use this as a frigging valuable lesson on how the EU should and is supposed to work, a bit like what Neoconman alludes to. (nah, I’m not really that naive)

(B) I live in a multi-cultural family, with me born in the USA, my wife, Russian and my stepson a teenager (different species altogether). I’ve seen the UK begin here (as the EEC which I DO favour) and quietly intrude into virtually every part of our lives, whether we wanted it to or not.

(C) I do not support the idea of every “man” for himself, but I do believe in the preeminence of freedom over equality. We are NOT equal - we are all different. Trying to pretend that everyone is the same by shovelling money from where it is earned to where it is not is a fool’s errand.

About Pat Oliphant

Called "the most influential cartoonist now working" by The New York Times, Pat Oliphant occupies a unique position among today’s editorial cartoonists: Widely considered the dean of the profession, he is one of its sharpest, most daring practitioners.